The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has released an important new report that details Barack Obama's record on nominating judges during his first term. It's no surprise: Republican obstruction against his selections was unprecedented. For example:

"President Obama is the only one of the five most recent Presidents for whom, during his first term, both the average and median waiting time from nomination to confirmation for circuit and district court nominees was greater than half a calendar year (i.e., more than 182 days).

"A quick look at the report's summary confirms that Obama's nominees have been treated more roughly than those of Presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and the other Bush."

"What changed when Obama took office, however, was the extension of the filibuster to cover every single nominee. Republicans didn't always vote against cloture (or even demand cloture votes), but they did demand 60 votes for every nominee. That's brand new. It's true that Democrats filibustered selected judicial nominations during the George W. Bush presidency, but only at the circuit court level, and not every single one."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VagjBaWZsSEThis is from 2010 about 2009, about the Filibuster. It is followed by Mitch McConnell speaking in 2005 about wanting to end the Filibuster entirely..In 2010, having been through the unprecedented 112 Filibusters and demands for Super Majorities on every single vote, the Democrats have been forced to fall back on Continuing Resolutions in order to govern. There are no Filibuster statistics for 2010 because the decision became, "Can we get 60 votes for this in the Senate? No? Fine then we can't bring it up."

The only party blocking legislation is the Republican Party by insisting on a never-before-employed standard of 60 Senate votes for everything. The US has been in business for 225 years, and never before has this standard been the standard for every vote.

How about the written questions the new EPA nominee? How many questions are enough. David Vitter submitted 600 written questions of the 1079 written questions she has answered. This is from May of this year, 2013.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSttN2unU48And the clever redistricting of each state. Massive over representation of Republicans and underrepresentation of Democrats based simply on the numbers. 1.1 million more votes went to Democrats but the Republicans kept the majority in the House. And now they want to extend that over representation to include the Presidential vote too. What ever happened to one man or woman and one vote. I guess it got lost in the win at all costs or cheat trying that is now the modus operandi of the Republican Party.

Has lots of hyperlinks for more statistics on Republican deliberate sabotage of the Jobs Bill highlighting "thelengths to which Republicans are going, including opposing their own proposals and hurting the U.S. economy, to undermine President Obama."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/29/opinion/malicious-obstruction-in-the-senate.html?_r=0March 28 2013"Earlier this month, during one of his new across-the-aisle good-will tours, President Obama pleaded with Senate Republicans to ease up on their record number of filibusters of his nominees. He might as well have been talking to one of the statues in the Capitol. Republicans have made it clear that erecting hurdles for Mr. Obama is, if anything, their overriding legislative goal.

"There is no historical precedent for the number of cabinet-level nominees that Republicans have blocked or delayed in the Obama administration. Chuck Hagel became the first defense secretary nominee ever filibustered. John Brennan, the C.I.A. director, was the subject of an epic filibuster by Senator Rand Paul. Kathleen Sebelius and John Bryson, the secretaries of health and human services and commerce, were subjected to 60-vote confirmation margins instead of simple majorities. Susan Rice surely would have been filibustered and thus was not nominated to be secretary of state."

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2013/10/21/131021taco_talk_hertzbergOctober 2013"Prominent among them is a belief that a federal law need not be repealed in order to be nullified. Equally noteworthy is an apparent inability to be reconciled to the results of an election. Last November, after a campaign that turned largely on the issue of health care, Barack Obama was re-elected with a popular majority of five million. In Senate races, Democrats drew ten million more votes than Republicans. In the House of Representatives, Republicans, whom Democrats outpolled by a million and a half, retained their legislative majority only by dint of the vagaries of districting and redistricting."

"Both sides increasingly delay judicial appointments when the other party is in power. Both sides use procedures like reconciliation in the Senate to get what they want (though Republicans used it in the case of the Bush tax breaks to add trillions to the deficit, the exact opposite point of reconciliation). Both sides operate by prioritizing their donors' needs over those of average citizens.

"But the clouds of gray inevitable in a political process that has from our founding required ugly compromise are helping shade the unprecedented measures Senate Republicans began taking when the Democrats took over the Senate, and escalated into overdrive as President Obama assumed office.

"From the night of the president's inauguration, the GOP has plotted to deny Obama any successes, <b>even as the country languished in a recession made worse by eight years of policies that had the effect of purposely exacerbating income inequality."</b>Those are the Bush years which featured the largest transfer of wealth upward to the wealthiest ever seen in the United States.

Senate GOP Obstructionists Throw Veterans Under The Bus-Vote Down Bill To Help Vets In Need Of Jobs 9/23/2012 "For those who continue to believe that obstructionism at any cost is not the goal of the Senate Republicans, consider the behavior of the GOP Senators who, on Friday, blocked a bi-partisan effort to pass a bill that would put veterans to work in jobs that look after the nation's federal land while also giving our fighting men and women a leg up when it comes to getting them hired by local police and fire departments."

"Major GOP Donor Arrested in $100 Million Veteran Charity Scam""The U.S. Marshal Service announced Tuesday that it had captured one of America's Most Wanted fugitives who is accused of creating a fake charity for Navy veterans that funneled some of the $100 million collected to Republican candidates.""Republican Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli reportedly personally pleaded with Thompson for donations and received $55,000 for his effort, making Thompson Cuccinelli's second-largest donor. Cuccinelli was eventually forced to turn over the tainted money to veterans support groups."

Bachmann Takes Heat From Veterans' Group for Proposing Benefits Cuts

"Conservative Rep. Michele Bachmann is taking heat from the nation's largest combat veterans' organization for proposing, as part of a broad list of spending cuts, a combination of reductions and caps in veterans' benefits."

I hope no-one you know Toni is getting screwed by the Republicans on these issues.

H.R. 466 - Wounded Veteran Job Security Act - This bill would actually provide job security for veterans who are receiving medical treatment for injuries suffered while fighting in defense of their country. It would prohibit employers from terminatingemployees who miss work while receiving treatment for a service-related disability.

H.R. 1168 -- Veterans Retraining Act - This bill would provide for assistance to help veterans who are currently unemployed with their expenses while retraining for the current job market.

H.R. 1171 - Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program Reauthorization - This bill would reauthorize programs in support of homeless veterans, to assist them with job training, counseling, and placement services through the Department of Veterans Affairs through 2014.

H.R. 1172 -- Requiring List on VA Website of Organizations Providing Scholarships for Veterans which does nothing more than direct the Department of Veterans Affairs to include information about scholarships for veterans.

H.R. 1293 -- Disabled Veterans Home Improvement and Structural Alteration Grant Increase Act of 2009 - Here'sanother bill in support of those who have fought for their country, passed by House Democrats and blocked from becoming law by Republicans.

This would increase the amount paid by the VA to disabled veterans for necessary home structural improvements from $4,100 to $6,800 for those who are more than 50% disabled, and from $1,200 to $2,000 who are less than 50%, disabled. This means, if a veteran lost the use of his legs in service of his country, the country will pay for the wheelchair ramp so that he can live at home.

By the way, the last time this ceiling was lifted was in 1992. There isn't even a fiscal reason for being against this bill, as the total cost of this bill, according to CBO estimates, would be a "whopping" $20 million. That's about a quarter (25 cents) per family of four.

H.R. 1803 -- Veterans Business Center Act - This bill would set up a Veterans Business Center program within the Small Business Administration, which would specialize in such programs as grants for service-disabled veterans, help them develop business plans and secure business opportunities. In other words, folks, it would create jobs and offer opportunities those who have fought in defense of our country.

H.R. 2352 - Job Creation Through Entrepreneurship Act - This bill essentially combines a number of other bills that Republicans had blocked in the Senate previously, and adds a few elements. The bill would again establish a Veterans Business Center Program; .... it would establish a Military Entrepreneurs Program; ...

However, I DO have to comment on ONE of the issues mistakenly (on purpose) twisted......

"""In 2010, having been through the unprecedented 112 Filibusters and demands for Super Majorities on every single vote, the Democrats have been forced to fall back on Continuing Resolutions in order to govern. There are no Filibuster statistics for 2010 because the decision became, "Can we get 60 votes for this in the Senate? No? Fine then we can't bring it up."""""

THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS FORCED A CONTINUING RESOLUTION FOR THE FIRST FOUR YEARS OF THIS ADMINISTRATION HAS BEEN HARRY REID....... Again....BY CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, the Senate is REQUIRED to present a budget, and he had absolutely refused to do so, forcing the CR every year. The only reason he actually presented the joke of one THIS year was because they wanted to use it as leverage against the House to cut a deal and get the sequestration stopped. That didn't work and Reid was almost begging the House to give him a CR again...which he got, but it wasn't 'clean' like he wanted. The House actually got something THEY wanted....BO's reversal of the subsidy verification for Obamacare.

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